NPV Switch performance in OCI 7.0.1?

[JBARBALACE]

Good afternoon,

Although we see the MDS switch performance, is it possible to get performance for the NPV switches?  The Cisco Fiber Interconnect?  Is this feature on the list for upcoming OCI releases?

Another question, we have a number of UCS chassis blades that are connected to a VPLEX (backend storage is a VMAX), and we do not see performance for these blades.  We do see performance for blades that are attached to NetApp and EMC storage that we have discovered.  Is this because of the VPLEX?  We do not have the backend VMAX discovered at this time and we are wondering if this might be a result of that.  

Thanks!

Julia

[ostiguy]

In the OCI 7.1.1 sotto voce feature catalog, the NPV switches webUI landing page can now support performance. Out of the box, only Brocade Access Gateway will work, but we have a post 7.1.1 Cisco datasource patch that unlocks the ability for the Cisco datasource to collect performance from NPV mode devices.

The historical limitation of requiring you to deploy 1 datasource per NPV/AG mode device still holds.

Please note - the UI flows are not where we want them to be. For example, the VM and Host webUI landing pages are still architected in a fashion that basically presumes you will not be doing direct discovery of these devices - as such, they show the upstream FC switch port from the NPV/AG mode device, instead of showing the actual NPV/AG mode switch ports the host, or the host the VM sits on, is connected to.

So, we can collect the data, but it can be a bit of a bear to see the data in the right contexts - if you know what NPV switch your devices lives on, you can go to the NPV switch landing page to see the data, but it you dont....

Are the UCS blades connected to NPV mode devices? That would be an inhibitor for getting port perf on those ports for 7.1.0 and earlier.

FYI, we have Vplex array perf support in beta on 7.1.x, so if your Vplexes are 5.3 firmware and up....

The storage involved should not impact switch port perf collection. It is always a best practice to discover the backend of a virtualizer as 100% of the backend may not be allocated, and thus without discovery you are blind for capacity planning use cases. On 7.0.x, we don't have Vplex perf, but we can do Symmetrix perf, and therefore there are performance use cases served by discovery as well

Matt

[JBARBALACE]

Also, I typed that wrong, we have OCI 7.1.0...

The UCS blades are connected to NPV's, which are connected to VPLEX, and we aren't able to see the performance for those particular blades.   So, let me ask a follow-up, once we upgrade to 7.1.1, and we start to see VPLEX performance, we should in turn see the blade performance?  Or no?

[ostiguy]

7.1.0 won't do it - some of the webUI landing pages were enhanced.

Due to the 7.1.1 + Cisco patch functionality, I think there is a good chance you will be able to collect port performance stats on that environment as the hosts are connected to NPV mode blades. The fact that Vplex is involved is irrelevant - what matters is the NPV switch landing page can show port perf in 7.1.1, and you need a post 7.1.1 Cisco datasource patch to be able to collect it

Hope this makes sense

Matt

[JBARBALACE]

That does make sense, and thank you!

So, I have 7.1.1 running in the lab now.  Where can I get the most recent patches?  I have a file of patches dated 8/2015 - are these the most recent that would include the Cisco patch to help with the performance acquisition?

[JBARBALACE]

To follow-up, I applied the Cisco patch for the NPV mode devices.  Now, when I turn on performance polling for the Cisco FI's, it says "All Successful".  Previously I'd only been able to acquire Inventory metrics.  So we definitely have a win there.  But...

Anything that is connected to a switch port identified as a "port-channel #" or "san-port-channel #" (F-ports), I still do not see performance collecting.  At this point, should I be able to see performance?  As you mentioned in a previous post, I am able to see from the FC port to the Cisco FI, but I could see that before the patch.  

I've been letting it poll for awhile now, waiting to see if perhaps it just needed time to collect enough data to report on.  You had also mentioned that it can be a little difficult to find the NPV performance once being collected.  I've gone to the webUI landing page for the FI itself, I've tried through the webUI landing page for the UCS blade, the landing page for a VM, for a physical host, from the landing page for the MDS switch... I don't see it.  Actually, the FI landing page doesn't even have a section for port performance.   Is there some documentation or a good link as to how best to weed out the NPV port performance?

[ostiguy]

Hmmm.

Question - does OCI show the port speeds for those port-channels?

Thanks

Matt

[JBARBALACE]

It does not.  It reports "N/A".  

All I can see is the port speed (GB/s) for the standard FC ports (type: NP-Port) and virtual ports (type: TF-Port).

[ostiguy]

You are hitting an ugly OCI architecture quirk - our list of ports speeds is finite, and we can only report statistics on ports with known speeds.

We are hoping to fix this in 7.2 - we looked at it, and architecturally it was too risky to fix in 7.1.x

Do you know what speeds those ports should be? In the OCI Java UI, if you set a filter on the port speed column, you can see the list of defined port speeds.

[JBARBALACE]

No, that field is blank in the Java UI, as well.  I'm not sure what the port speed on those should be.

So, I still have questions that I'd like to clarify this morning about the NPV performance (the Cisco FI's that we are now obtaining performance for with the patch), how do I know that I'm collecting it and, although it's a bear to see it, how can I see it?  Or, because I don't see port speed for the port-channels I won't see that in any view?

If I'm in the Java UI, the NPV Switch view, I pick a FI and right click to "Open in Web UI".  Looking at the the NPV switch landing page in the WebUI, I see ports, port speed (GB/s), but I don't see traffic nor any place that port traffic would logically populate.  If I want to see traffic, to ensure that performance is even down all paths from the FI to the storage, or from the FI to the host, as I see the traffic from the core switch FC port to the FI, where is that view?  I'm gathering that I would not be able to see it in the Java UI, but only somewhere in the Web UI.

Thank you for your help with all of this!  I just want to make sure that I understand and know what to expect vs. not expect until another version of OCI arrives.

[ostiguy]

The rule of thumb for 7.1.1 and earlier - if OCI cannot display the port speed for a given port, it cannot display port statistics for said port.

If you know the name of your NPV switches, you can search for them.

Another approach is the Java UI -> NPV switches view -> right click -> Open in WebUI option

[JBARBALACE]

We have the NPV switches identified and I know what they are connected to.  

I guess what I'm getting out of this is that, despite the patch that allows for the collection of Cisco FI performance, I still only see the traffic between the FI and the core switch, and I will still not be able to see the port traffic between the FI and the host or the UCS blade, etc?  But, this view should be remedied in later OCI versions?